Jason Robinson & Brian Habana supporting a great cause

I found this video on YouTube of Jason Robinson & Brian Habana giving their time towards the development of grassroots rugby. In connection with HSBC Kit Collection and SOS IRB Kit Aid, they held a rugby clinic for 400 local township kids at St John’s College during the HSBC rugby festival in JHB.

We here at Blogspotrugby are firmly committed to the development of grassroots rugby within South Africa, so I decided to do a little research.

 The SOS/IRB Kit Aid Website had the following to say:  

Mission Statement

SOS/iRB Kit Aid is a rugby project that gives less advantaged children around the world a chance to play and develop rugby in emerging nations through the collection and distribution of unused/unwanted kit from the UK and Ireland. 

SOS Kit Aid  was founded by a rugby dad, (John Broadfoot), who saw for himself the plight of Romanian youngsters during a school rugby tour to Romania. The sight of a smiling Romanian eight year old boy running with the ball under one arm whilst he used the other to hold up his shorts made him want to do something about it. From the experience of his own rugby playing sons he knew there were several pairs of boots and shirts lying around at home doing nothing. So to test out the potential John collected kit from just ten schools to see how much kit might be available on a wider scale. The test was an outstanding success both in terms of quantity and quality of kit donated and John persuaded the International Rugby Board to endorse and fund the project’s expansion to 1000+ schools and Clubs.

The IRB went on to offer their sponsorship and support, and the rest is history…

Aims of the project

One of the strengths of the project is that SOS only collects kit and equipment and not money, we don’t ask for financial public donations, just your unused/unwanted kit.

The collection of kit:

(ALL SIZES From 8 to 18 year olds)CLEAN rugby shirts (preferably in team sets)

• CLEAN rugby shorts/socks (PREFERABLY IN TEAM SETS)
• CLEAN rugby boots (preferably with 99% studs in) from sizes 4 to 11
• CLEAN rugby balls/ball bags
• CLEAN rugby tracksuits
• CLEAN rugby head/shoulder protectors
• CLEAN rugby tackle bags/pads
• CLEAN rugby wet tops/bottoms
• CLEAN training tops
• CLEAN training cones

For more info or if you are interested in supporting this worthwhile cause, here are the contact details.

It was great to see the 2009 B&I Lions lending a helping hand too.

Watch this space for Blogspotrugby supporting grassroots rugby…!